happy 233rd birthday

Programming note: I have a four-day weekend, and am going to spend the vast majority of it not blogging. I will probably put together one, maybe two new videos if I get bored enough, and alerting you to their presence is more than likely the extent of posting you'll see here this coming weekend. That plus a special Fourth of July post. I do want to try and write one Examiner.com article; right now I'm on a schedule of once every three days and that seems to be working for me, which means you can expect a new one on Saturday.

The most important thing for today, then, is to wish a heartfelt happy 233rd birthday to the United States of America. We have our flaws, to be sure, but this is a weekend to celebrate all that's good about our great land - our prosperity, our freedom, and the courage of the Founding Fathers who brought it all to fruition. Iran has done a very timely job of reminding us of what we enjoy here - or rather, what we don't have to deal with.

The second most important thing would be the two verbal commitments that dropped our way today: LB Henry Coley and OT Conner Davis are now on board. Neither is a surprise, though Davis provided us with some sporadic tense moments by flirting with Tech. In the end, as with Mark Shuman going their way, fanhood and family ties won out. I could do a writeup on either one (Coley technically came first so it'd be him) but I was planning on not putting that much effort into today's post, so it'll have to wait til next week. Today is just a couple links that I liked.

- Vic Hall is playing offense now, did you know? You knew, right? All I ask of Jerry Ratcliffe right now is that he keeps the Harlequin-esque descriptions out of future articles.

- Pete Gillen does a very commendable thing. This is the sort of thing that comes naturally to him; Gillen was always one of the nicest people. He took a trip to visit the troops in the hospital in Maryland, then flew to Kuwait and afterwards to Afghanistan. No truth to the rumor that he called time-out twice in Maryland and three more times in Kuwait and didn't have any left for the guys at Bagram.

- A little bit of reportery stuff on the UA All-American lacrosse game and Dom Starsia's thoughts on the incoming freshmen who played therein. Here's my thought: Connor English is our biggest incoming recruit and I don't care what Starsia says about maybe being not ready, if "Connor English" doesn't sound like the name of a lacrosse megastar, then nothing ever will.

- Oh snap. Pat Forde knows something that we know too, but the thing is, you usually can't get ESPN types to actually say it:

The Terrapins have shocked the Tar Heels each of the past three seasons, and no fan base in the ACC is as irritating (and occasionally tasteless) as Maryland's.

Zing.

- Our incoming soccer class, speaking of all-stars and whatnot, is ranked #1 in the ACC. As mentioned in the article, incoming freshman Will Bates has played for the national U-18 team, and he's done very well for himself. Bates was the star of a game against Australia that won us a U-18 tourney hosted by the Aussies. The soccer season is something I'm very much looking forward to. Add this class to a hopefully healthy bunch of scorers this year and we could do some major, major damage.

Right, that's all then. Enjoy your weekend. Please don't blow your hands off. And at some point while you're out enjoying a few well-earned cold ones, raise one to the fifty-six men (and one, obviously, in particular) who risked everything they had to give you what you now enjoy.

the recruit: Pablo Alvarez

First, some of that shameless self-promotion you've surely come to enjoy by now: my thoughts on the Director's Cup are up at Examiner.com. Go have a look-see.

OK: Pablo. I'll tell you what the first thing that strikes me is: the weekend's basketball commitment, Will Regan, looks young enough to be Pablo's son; likewise, Pablo could pass for 38. Also, he will be to my knowledge the first football player at UVA named Pablo - this is a big plus.

Name: Pablo Alvarez, Jr.
Position: CB (for now, I guess)
Hometown: Miami, FL
School: Belen Jesuit Prep
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190

ESPN: NR
Rivals: NR
Scout: NR

Out of the blue, this one. For one thing, we don't go into Florida much. Less than most ACC teams, anyway. One recruit last year, one in 2006, and one in 2003 has been the extent of our success in that state in the last howevermany years. Besides that, Alvarez has been flying far enough under the radar that I barely had even heard of him, let alone had him on the board, by the time he committed. Naturally therefore, he's got absolutely zero evaluation from anywhere, so there's very little to go on.

As usual then, we look at the offers, and to me they suggest a high two-star/very low three-star. Iowa, Northwestern, Duke, maybe Kansas State depending on whether you believe Scout or not, and I'm not sure I do.

What I really gather out of this is that Groh went after Pablo mainly for his athleticism, which is tough to match. Lot of football players are also track stars; much less common are hurdling stars, in which Pablo is nationally ranked. This is actually really interesting to me; hurdling requires more than raw speed, it requires technique and some actual leg strength. He's tall for a cornerback, if that's where he ends up, so leg strength is a must because tall, top-heavy cornerbacks don't do well. Did I mention he's really good at hurdles? He's got some times listed here; for comparison's sake, because I really wouldn't know what makes a good hurdles time and maybe you wouldn't either, here are the national best times.

I really don't know how much this'll translate to football though, in no small part because it's anyone's guess where he'll end up, even if it's cornerback to start. Pure athleticism seems to be the primary motivator here; his highlight film doesn't showcase much in the way of cover skills or route-running (he plays two ways, natch, most of the best athletes do) but there are quite a few clips of him coming from outside the play and chasing down a ballcarrier after a lengthy run. Pablo's going to have to scrap to make an early impact though. His tackling's a little rough, things like that. (Of course, you always hope your DB's don't have do any tackling.) It's all coachable stuff though. It's hard to beat the athleticism of a hurdler and even harder to coach that into someone. Given some development time, Pablo's got the makings of a matchup nightmare for smaller wide receivers.

recruiting board update

It's not that long since I did the last one of these, but enough happened over the weekend, including a commitment, that the thing is woefully out of date already. More on commitment #6, Pablo Alvarez, tomorrow. That will be a voyage of discovery for me as much as anyone: I'd heard the name exactly one time before the news of that commitment broke.

Today, though, just a real simple update to the recruiting board. Simple, but big.

- Added CB Pablo Alvarez to the Orange Section of Awesomeness. I say CB, but from what I've seen it's probably going to be hard to peg him down to any one position. CB's as good as any for now.

- Dropped TE Blake Barker, OG Brandon Sacco, and RB Juwan Thompson. They dropped for Stanford, Pitt, and Duke, respectively. Barker was in the blue section based on us being in a top five earlier; I really should know better these days than to put a tight end in the blue.

- Moved WR Alex Kenney up to blue. Kenney has a shot to be the Torrey Mack of this class: the guy who gives an otherwise under-the-radar class a little star power.

- DE Henry Anderson's list of competing schools is his official top eight. Still not small enough a list to move him to blue, but hey, making the cut is making the cut.

- Added CB Rijo Walker, S Detric Allen, and S Lorenzo Waters to yellow. Waters would actually qualify as red ordinarily, but he's DeMatha and thus will have three recruiters in pads to go along with the coaches.

- Added DT Harold Legania and QB Munchie Legaux to red. They'd probably qualify for yellow (well, Legania would anyway), but this whole Louisiana thing is brand-new territory for us and until we prove we can pull someone out of there, I'll take the wait-and-see attitude.

Tomorrow: updateage on Pablo Alvarez; also look for another Examiner post which I'm brewing up.

the recruit: Will Regan

Name: Will Regan
Position: PF/C
Hometown: Williamsville, NY
School: The Nichols School
Height: 6'8"
Weight: 220

Rivals: 3-stars
Scout: 3-stars, #17 C
ESPN: 86, #58 PF

You maybe have noticed I don't do a whole lot of basketball recruiting stuff. I try to keep up with the ups and downs of the football process, and heaven knows I don't even do the world's best job of that; today's commitment (who I'll get to later this week) isn't even someone who's on the board, let alone in the blue section of it. But basketball? Except for the end of the process (which we're getting to today) and the big-picture stuff, I mostly ignore it. This is because I hate it. It's a shady world filled with shady characters trying to leech off of the process and the players, and the best coaches play the game and navigate the system only just enough to land the players they want and still stay clean as far as the NCAA rulebook is concerned. Football is a little different; there are a hell of a lot more players to keep track of, most of whom are no threat to endorse shoes at any point in their careers. It's not squeaky clean but at least you usually only have to deal with the player, his parents, and his school coach, and not with the added presence of a handler, wannabe agents, and AAU coaches.

Anyway, this is the point where I jump into the process: the exciting part. This is a little more exciting because Will Regan is Tony Bennett's first commitment as a Hoo, and one that goes a long way toward quelling any doubts about his recruiting ability. If you read my first Examiner.com article (warning: shameless self-promotion) you'd know I'm really, really pleased with this pickup.

The ratings are really kinda tthhbbppttt. Don't be fooled. One, Regan's due for a boost whenever they shuffle the rankings. He's performed well and made a name for himself at summer tournaments and camps, including, obviously, the NBA Camp in Charlottesville, otherwise Bennett wouldn't have pushed for him. Two, Regan's got offers from all sorts of quality places. Tournament schools like Michigan, Arizona State, Siena, Maryland. And places that have a tradition like Providence, Stanford, and St. John's. OK, so not the UNC's and Kansases of the world, but still.

And Regan dominates his high school competition. He averages a double-double, and not a chintzy one either, and turns in games with lines like, 32 points, 13 boards, 10 blocks. He joined some excellent company in winning Western New York Player of the Year honors as a junior (and by the way, last year, being the first sophomore in 14 years to be named to the first team there); how do Jonny Flynn and Christian Laettner sound as company to join in that category? Catch me if I'm getting ahead of myself, but Regan sounds ready to make the jump right now. That's probably just me drinking the Kool-Aid, but it's really delicious Kool-Aid and you should try some.

So what are the skills Regan brings to the table? One thing that jumps out at you in just about every scouting report - I'm not even going to bother linking anything because I'd have to link everything - is "fundamentally sound." Now, if you've read enough scouting reports on high school basketball players, you've probably alread picked up on the code: "fundamentally sound" usually means "slightly gumpy unskilled white guy." OK, but there's a grain of truth to the code, because there are no slightly gumpy unskilled fundamentally unsound white guys playing in a level of basketball higher than the Atlantic Sun Conference. So: plays decent defense, posts up well, makes the right passes, not going to suddenly blow by a defender and throw down a monster windmill dunk. The thing that should separate him from a lot of the competition, be his calling card if you will, is that he can shoot the three-pointer. How do we know? Because Michigan was all over Regan this winter. John Beilein will have all his guys outside the arc shooting threes. A 6'8" power forward who can knock down a three is exactly what he wants three of on the court at all times, and Michigan was recruiting him very hard. "Premiere big-man target" is high praise and that was as late as the end of March. It's a testament to Bennett's recruiting efforts that Regan spent the winter not really talking about UVA - Maryland, Michigan, and Stanford kept popping up - then somewhere between the beginning of April and end of May, we'd joined the conversation. Helped that Michigan landed a very similar player (Evan Smotrycz) ten days after that report, who blew up in a very big way shortly afterwards.

So I'm really jazzed, here. All hail Tony Bennett and whoever decided to build that wicked fancy beautiful new addition to Rouss Hall for the Comm-school, because that's where Regan will spend his classroom days. Terrific baller and zero worries about academics; there's nothing not to love about this. Great, great start to the class of 2010.

Afterword: if we could just get through one weekend without any more celebrity carnage, that'd be really awesome. The King of Pop was a shock and a half, but Billy Mays too? What did Billy Mays ever do to anyone? Cable TV is a less awesomer place for this. Commercials on ESPNUVA will never be the same again. It's a damn shame. Now there's nothing but Vince the Shamwow Guy to brighten things up. May there be a restaurant in Heaven that serves Big City Sliders and wipes the tables with OxiClean.

Here's a little YouTubeage: one for Billy (parody-style) and another for Jacko.

missing the point

Well, naturally, it'd be like this. It has before, because heaven forbid you say anything bad about The Florida State University. I suppose if I were to do the "right" thing, I'd let the Florida State defenders of truth and justice go on with their railing. Knowing I'm right, I ought to just sit back and quaff my Zima, tie my sweater loosely around my neck, and let them hoot and holler whilst I repose on the Lawn and speak of Honor.

Screw it - this blog exists, in part, because there's a little bit of the message board loudmouth in me and there's nothing like a good Internet argument. Let's see about this stuff. The common thread between the two angry diatribes thrown back at me because of my angry diatribe against the whiny, see-no-evil attitude from the TFSU staff and admin is "you're in the same boat as we are because this stuff happens to you too, dirty Jefferson-loving hypocrite." To wit: "By the way how’s Peter Lalich doing? He was one of those upstanding young Cavaliers, right?"

Probably about as well as Preston Parker is doing, except that if those two ever get together and have a chat, Lalich is going to wonder what kind of a bum rap he got. Peter Lalich committed the heinous crime of drinking alcohol. It didn't help that the judge specifically told him not to, and he did, but there you go: those of you who went to college and drank alcohol before you were 21, take a lesson. Preston Parker also got thrown off the team for drinking alcohol, with the minor added detail of hopping behind the wheel of a car afterwards. Oh, and there was the marijuana. And the gun. And the shoplifting. None of which were enough to get him flung off the team until the third offense - ol' Bobby's all about third chances. Peter Lalich is the poster boy for bad behavior? I'll take it, especially in comparison.

But that's just a sideshow to the real thing. Credit is given for manning up and putting down your name. Let's dive into the argument:

While no FSU alum condones our recent, unfortunate cheating scandal, it's important to note it involved a renegade tutor who of her own volition made answers available to players. At UVA, it was the students themselves who actively, on their own, sought to beat the system and besmirch your once proud honor code.

The post refers primarily to the physics cheating scandal in 2001. You may remember it - I do, I was a second year the year the trials were dragging on. Indeed, the students themselves besmirched the honor code. And here's the best part about the honor code - it is student-run. That means it's also students who provide the discipline, and the articles that commenter Rich helpfully posts as a reminder of the cheating scandal also note that a large number of students were expelled as a result - and even more seriously, a few had their degrees revoked. That's the part that the don't-throw-stones argument glosses right over. Which is convenient, because that's the big difference between the schools.

Because, see, the point of the criticism of TFSU is not that "cheating happens there and not here." The point, which I really think comes through with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, is that the school's reaction to the scandal is the real problem. Cheating happens - if it didn't, there wouldn't be a need for an honor code in the first place, would there? That's why the original post didn't carry the title "Florida State is a bunch of damn dirty cheaters." The title was, very clearly and obviously, "Stop Whining."

The difference is not that their students cheat and ours don't. The difference is what happens in response. The UVA administration allowed the students to get down to the business of punishing the perpetrators, fairly, openly, and honestly. The TFSU administration whines about how unfair the NCAA is being. The guilty UVA students were expelled or lost their diplomas. The guilty TFSU athletes returned to play for their teams after a cursory suspension. It's kinda like that Preston Parker/Peter Lalich thing. Screw up when the judge tells you not to screw up, and you're gone, says UVA. TFSU sees things a little differently.

It's nice that we all agree on the major point, which is that TFSU needs to drop the appeal because it's embarrassing the school. That agreement in place, I suppose some potshots at the football team were necessary to even things up and keep the faithful fired up. Playing on Labor Day, that's pretty special. Bet that makes the Seminoles feel pretty important. Tell you what - let's all put this behind us, grab a beer, and go watch a ballgame.

sit down, shut up, and stop whining

OK, I've been biting my tongue on this whole Florida State thing, not least because there's been plenty to write about for the team(s) this blog is actually supposed to be covering, but there's much that needs to be said here, too.

I haven't made much of a secret of the fact that Florida State is one of my least favorite college teams of all time. So this may come off as biased. Sure, it's biased. I hate TFSU and love me some UVA. But don't make the mistake of thinking I'm making mountains out of molehills just because I'm just a biased ol' blabbermouth on the Internet. It's the other way 'round. I hate TFSU because they do stuff like this. Cheat, and do everything in their power to weasel out of punishment.

I refer, of course, to the academic scandal that first reared it's head in December of 2007. Details here if you've forgotten. I've already criticized the school and Dadgum Bobby Bowden for their response to it, especially, and rather egregiously, scheduling the poorest excuses for opponents they could find in order to pad the impact of the resulting suspensions.

It's time for this thing to get its own post, though. These guys won't shut up about how patently unfair the penalty is. They have to vacate wins: oh no! Why is this unfair? "It wasn't the coaches' fault," says Dadgum Bobby. Why, that would imply that it's the coaches being unfairly punished. We all know what's at stake for Bowden. This stuff "didn't bother" him until he learned he might suffer some kind of consquence for him. Let the players take the fall. Let the school's worker bees take the fall. Ol' Bobby didn't know what was going on. I mean, no reason a head coach should bother looking into what his players are up to.

Here's the thing: Vacating wins is a stupid punishment. When Florida State took the field on seven different Saturday afternoons in 2007 and in 2006, a football game was played. Everyone at the game remembers the outcome. Florida State scored more points than the other team. Nobody's going to say, oh, I was at the TFSU-Alabama game and nothing happened. The University of Michigan had to vacate its postseason runs involving the Fab Five; if those wins don't exist in the record books, then who did North Carolina beat in the title game? It's silly. And furthermore it does very little to deter future shenanigans. Recruits don't care what the NCAA's pieces of paper say about a game that happened in October three years ago. Vacating wins is a slap on the wrist and I actually wish the NCAA would do away with it as a punishment. They should be focused on making it harder to win in the future rather than taking away the ones in the past.

That said, vacating wins is what the NCAA has decided on. I don't know what TFSU thinks they should do in this case. Would they prefer a postseason ban? A TV ban? A draconian scholarship hit?

Because it's not like the NCAA has been inconsistent in its application of the rules. Here's a list of academic scandals in the last couple of decades or so. It's not comprehensive, but they all have one thing in common: the team in question vacated or forfeited wins. See if you can guess which is the TFSU one:

- A basketball team's office manager and team tutor writes over 400 papers for 18 players over a five-year period. The team vacates all postseason appearances from its record, among other punishments.

- A basketball coach gives A's to three players who never attend his basketball strategy class. The team vacates half its wins from the 2001-02 season and all of them in 2002-03.

- Two football assistant coaches find correspondence courses for their players to earn credits in, allow those players the use of their computers to write papers for these courses, and pay to mail off said papers. The team vacates all wins from 2007.

- A school's academic advisors and tutors provide answers for online quizzes in multiple classes and illegally edit and type papers for athletes on multiple teams. The school vacates wins in each affected sport in 2006 and 2007.

- A school admits a basketball player holding only a welder's certificate rather than an associate's degree from a junior college, violating academic and transfer guidelines. Among other punishments, the team forfeits its six conference wins from that season.

- A basketball team uses a player not actually enrolled in a full-time course program as required and provides him financial aid; additionally, an academic advisor prepares course work for two other players. The team, among other punishments, vacates the record of its performance in the 2000 NCAA tournament.

- A D-II basketball team provides completed homework to a player and admits to other "academic irregularities". The team voluntarily forfeits its entire 2008-09 season.

Some of these involved coaches, some did not. Some are basketball, some football. All are academic shenanigans, some more serious than others; indeed, some less serious than TFSU's. And all involve vacated or forfeited wins; in fact, "vacating" is a lighter punishment than "forfeiting", because TFSU's record from the vacated seasons will be 0-6 rather than 0-13. For what that's worth.

In fact, the list of coaches with portions of their record is extremely long and distinguished. There's no special treatment for Dadgum Bobby here.

There is a pattern here, though. Use ineligible players, and the NCAA will take away the wins you achieved with those players.. This isn't hard to understand nor is it inconsistent. I may not agree with the idea but it is consistent. And it is light. Going forward, TFSU will have very, very little competitive disadvantage. Probation? Probation is something you give a school to inform that after a certain amount of time, further shenanigans will be treated as if they're the first ones to happen. The NCAA obviously does not care about the impact on what will likely now be Joe Paterno's record, and it shouldn't. Given TFSU's track record (Dillards, shoes, academics, etc.) it's very annoying to hear them complain about "hitting a flea with a sledgehammer" (again, when the penalties aren't even that nasty) and extremely nauseating to hear them whine about the NCAA's "arrogance"; how dare the NCAA punish us.

Is it any wonder why the rest of the ACC hopes the next winless season the Seminoles churn out is fully earned on the field, and not the last?

i have an Announcement

I've become, technically, a "professional" writer, in that somebody has decided that what I do is good enough to pay me for doing it. I've begun writing for Examiner.com and am now the "Virginia Cavaliers Examiner." You can find my own, very special page right here and my first post, a little article on basketball recruiting and What We Should Do and all that, is at this link here, and you should click because that is how I get money.

What's in it for me is a little walking-around money - nothing that's gonna pay any bills, but this also doesn't require me to quit my day job (good thing, because I literally can't) or spend hours every day slaving over a keyboard. What's in it for you is basically bonus content and the chance to see what a big dweeb I look like whenever I'm in close proximity to a camera, because they will insist on having a picture up.

And the good news for both of us is that I don't have to stop writing this blog here, either. In fact you should expect pretty much the same amount of content you've come to expect on these pages. That's my hope and intent at this point. I'm even allowed to get lazy and post the same stuff there that I post here, but I'm gonna try not to do that much because otherwise you wouldn't bother reading both and then what's the point? Examiner doesn't demand a set posting schedule or deadlines or whatnot, and I intend to try and get stuff up there 3-4 times a week, and naturally, you can click through here to get to there and eventually vice versa. In short order there will be new links on the side for you to see.